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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

I believe it is important in a classroom. I use assigned seating the first day of class because I think this sends a message to the students that I am the person in charge. Have you ever gone to a gathering that is chaotic and you didn’t know if anyone is in charge? I believe students feel that way in many classrooms. It also opens the door when I need to move students around because of personality conflicts or too much socialization going on during my lessons. I sometimes assign seats according to ability levels (the higher ones can help the lower ones if I am busy with someone else). Now this might cause you some concern but it is real life. If I’m having a problem on the job, I sometimes might go to a colleague for help rather than the boss so why not start this in the classroom. Sometimes their peers are able to explain things better to them than I can. I also learn a lot by listening to those conversations so I can tweak the lesson for a future class. As I’ve said before, I believe the students need to know what their limits are and will respect you for doing this. I feel it also sets the tone of the classroom and students feel safer if they know someone is in charge. Have you ever gone to a gathering that is chaotic and you didn’t know if anyone is in charge? I believe students feel that way in many classrooms.

2 comments:

I agree that assigned seating works really well for behaviour (did you mean in separated desks or groups?) and I often used this system with my Year 4 and upwards music classes. Now I am doing classroom teaching in the P-3 area, there is kind of an unspoken rule that we place children in groups, which is nice for their socialisation skills, but it can be harder to separate the talkers.

I have used assigned seats for individual seats AND for groups. Sometimes I want the group to have students with different abilities. Sometimes I don't want certain students to sit together, as you mentioned because of the talking. Sometimes I know that certain students don't get along and I don't want this lesson to be about that. Sometimes I might put them together because that is the real world and we sometimes have to work with people we don't care for. Thanks for your comments!